148 



THE AVESTERN PROVINCE 



the ignition thus to the grass; hut hy far the most normal cause is the 

 band of man. The native feels ahnost as strongly as we do the curse of 

 the long grass which, during the rainy season, makes travel so difficult 

 and conceals so much of the ground. As soon as the grass is withered 

 by the commencement of the drought it is set fire to, and these grass 

 fires, sweeping over wide plains, burn up all the vegetation they encounter. 

 They thus make it impossible for large trees to subsist in unsheltered 

 places. i^crubby trachylobinras, bauhinias, proteas, and such-like gnarled 



120. SUDD ON THE NILE 



and twisted trees can apparently stand an annual singeing without dying ,- 

 but any tree of handsome apjjearance must of course be killed the first 

 year and burnt the second. The bush fire drives before it big and small 

 game, the elephant and the rat, often into the pitfalls of the natives; 

 but once removed from the scare of the flames, the game will soon return 

 eagerly to the burnt districts, knowing that in a few weeks' time tender 

 green grass will show itself above the blackened ground. 



The Nileland of to-day which is included within the Uganda Protec- 

 torate is much of it in sad contrast with its condition during Sir Samuel 

 Baker's government of the Sudan, and even during the silver age of 



